I am looking for a rental in Bangkok and have identified a townhouse in ddproperty.com.  I contacted the agent.  We agreed on the terms of the rental (including the price, duration of the lease, move-in date, etc).  After I have verified the ownership, I made an advance payment.  The agent then sent me a reservation form but told me that the owner will not sign the lease agreement until the move-in date, which is a month from now.  Is it typical in Bangkok that the owner does not sign the lease agreement until the move-in date?  This seems to be different from what I experienced in Pattaya when the lease was signed ahead of time.  Will appreciate an insight from anyone.  Thanks.  

Read like the owner is hoping someone will move in now, instead of waiting a month.

I think every time I rented a place (in different provinces), I always signed the contract on the day I moved in.

Sometimes no deposit, sometimes a few thousand baht, never more than one month rent as deposit. But the move in date was also never one month in the future, usually a week or two, often times I was ready to move in right now, but the landlord needed a few days to clean the place and make some fixes. In most cases I talked directly with the owner.

 

Two times agents had such a "reservation form", one time it simply said that I can't move in on the specified date I get my deposit back, in the other case it even said something like if I can't move in on the specified date and it's the owner's fault, I get twice my deposit back from him.

What does the reservation form state?

Did you ever talk directly with the owner?

My view:

Until the actual lease is signed by both parties ie landlord and tenant there is no binding agreement.

No reason in law that the landlord cannot sign the lease now even though move in date later.

That is often the practice  in Thailand in my experience.

Need to know what the reservation form says which may change my opinion....